Eco Design Paper Facts

FACTS ABOUT PAPER AND PAPER WASTE (Please do not print this fact sheet unless necessary!) Approx.
324 L. of water is used to produce 1 KG of paper.

Source: Environment Canada
Paper manufacturing is the largest industrial user of water per pound of finished product.
Source: American Forest and Paper Association
The World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainability as Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Source: World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987
The US uses 25% of the world's paper products.

The average American uses more than 748 pounds of paper per year.
Average worldwide annual paper consumption is 48 KG per person with North America accounting for over 1/3.
Source: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Discussion Paper (IIED, London, September 1996)
The US uses approx. 68 million trees each year to produce 17 billion catalogues and 65 billion pieces of direct mail.
Average per capita paper use in the USA is 333 KG. Average per capital paper use worldwide is 48 KG.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1997
It is estimated that paper consumption will rise by 50% by 2010.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1997:78
Asia has surpassed Western Europe in paper consumption and will soon surpass the United States.
The average daily web user prints 28 pages daily.

Source: Gartner group and HP
115 billion sheets of paper are used annually for personal computers.
Source: Worldwatch Institute
It is estimated that 95% of business information is still stored on paper.

700 pounds of paper are consumed by the average American each year.
Source: Environmental Defense Fund, Champion Paper Mills
Although paper is traditionally identified with reading and writing, communications has now been replaced by packaging as the single largest category of paper use at 41% of all paper used.
Source: North American Factbook PPI, 1995. (Figures are for 1993)
10,000 trees are cut down annually in China to make holiday cards.
Source: Xinhua News Agency
The paperless office, once predicted as a result of information technology (IT), has not transpired. Industry analysts estimate that 95% of business information is still stored on paper.
3 cubic yards of landfill space can be saved by one ton of recycled paper.
Source: 50 Simple things you Can do to Save the Earth, Jodi B., Sudbury
77 percent of paper is recycled in the Netherlands.

Source: Washington Post
67 percent of paper is recycled in Germany.

Recycling 54 KG of newspaper will save one tree.

Source: Government of Canada, Digital Collections
52 percent of paper is recycled in Japan.

Paper and paper products accounts for more than 1/3 of all Canadas waste.
45 percent of paper is recycled in the U.S.

Canada uses 6 million tonnes of paper and paperboard annually. Only 1/4 of Canadas waste paper and paperboard is recycled.
Every year in the United States, over 2 billion books are published, 359 million magazines are published 24 billion newspaper are published
Source: Purdue Research Foundation and US Environmental Protection Agency, 1996
Paper manufacturing is the 3rd largest user of fossil fuels worldwide.

Source: American Forest and Paper Association, (Garner, J.W.. Energy Conservation Practices Offer Environmental and Cost Benefits. Pulp & Paper, October 2002).
One year's worth of the New York Times newspaper weighs 520 pounds.
page 1 of 3 please print on 100% post consumer waste, processed chlorine free paper
Every ton of recycled paper saves about 17 trees.

Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than making paper from virgin wood pulp.
Source: Energy Educators of Ontario, 1993
Recycling paper uses 60% less energy than manufacturing virgin timber paper.
Source: "1996 Statistics, Data Through 1995." American Forest and Paper Association. November 1996. Pg. 2
The post-consumer recycling rate for old newsprint in the US in 1990, 1992, and 1994 was 38%, 47%, and 45% respectively
Source: Environmental Health and Safety Online (MSW Report)
Office paper is the most heavily recovered segment of printing and writing paper (which also includes book and magazine paper, junk mail, brochures, etc.).
Source: Waste Age, "Profiles in Garbage," November 2001
New York's largest export out of the Port of NY is waste paper.

Source: What About Waste, Cornell Waste Management Institute, 1990
Nearly 81.3 million tons of paper and paperboard waste was generated in the U.S. in 1994.
Source: Environmental Health and Safety Online
30-40% of trash is discarded packaging.

Paper and paperboard constituted the largest portion of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream in 1994, representing 38.9% of the total waste by weight.
Packaging makes up a third or more of our trash.

Source: The Recycler's Handbook, 1990
Paper had an overall recycling rate of 35.3% in 1994. About 55.3% of corrugated boxes, 45.3% of newspapers, 19.3% of books, 30% of magazines, and 42.5% of office papers were recycled in.
The average American uses 18 cubic feet of wood and 749 pounds of paper - equal to a 100-foot tree with an 18-inch trunk - each year.
Source: American Forest & Paper Association, 2004
Recovered paper is used to make a variety of products, including copier paper, paper towels and napkins, corrugated boxes, and hydraulic mulch.
Americans discard 4 million tons of office paper every year - enough to build a 12-foot high wall of paper from New York to California.
Source: American Forest & Paper Association, 2004
It takes 75,000 trees to print a Sunday Edition of the New York Times.
Source: North Carolina Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling
The U.S. exports more waste paper than any other country.
Every tree provides oxygen enough for 3 people to breathe.

Source: North Carolina Office of Waste Reduction and Recycling
Recycling half the world's paper would free 20 million acres of forestland.
Americans consume more paper than the citizens of most other countries. Compared with the 1994 world average of 97 pounds, the United States per capita consumption of paper is more than 700 pounds, about 2 pounds-per-person-per-day. Per capita consumption of paper in the United States has grown 43 percent since 1980.
Source: "Source Reduction: It's a Bare Necessity." North Carolina Recycling Association and North Carolina Office of Waste Reduction. 1995. Pg. 46.
Paper products use about 35% of the world's annual commercial wood harvest.
About 40 million tons of paper that could be recycled is thrown away each year in the U.S.
In the US, 9,190 million tons of office paper was generated, and 4,220 million tons were recovered in 2002. In 2000, only 4,545 million tons were recovered.
Source: Waste Age "Profiles in Garbage," September 2003
If everyone in the US sent one less holiday card, we would save over 50,000 cubic yards of paper.
Source: Use Less Stuff, 1998
Recycling one ton of paper saves 682.5 gallons of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
Source: Waste Reduction is a Smart Business Decision, Onondaga Resource Recovery Agency, 1998
Dioxin is one by-product from use of elemental chlorine gas in paper bleaching.
Source: Printers National Environmental Assistance Centre, Fact Sheet by Todd MacFadden, and Michael P. Vogel, Ed.D. June, 1996
The average American attorney uses one ton of paper every year.
Source: Waste Reduction is a Smart Business Decision, Onondaga Resource Recovery Agency, 1998
Other sources of dioxin include municipal and hazardous waste incinerators, cement kilns, manufacture of certain herbicides and plastics, and several hydrocarbon chemicals.
If offices throughout the US increased the rate of two-sided photocopying from the 1991 figure of 20% to 60%, they could save the equivalent of about 15 million trees."
Source: Choose to Reuse by Nikki & David Goldbeck, 1995, Earth 911 2004
Dioxins tend to bioaccumulate, which means their concentrations in organisms increase successively up the food chain.
Employees at American financial businesses generate about 2 lbs. of paper a dayper person!
North Americans consume 323 kg per capita of paper products, Europe consumed 125 kg, Asia consumed 28 kg Latin America consumed 36 kg, Australasia consumed 322 kg, Africa consumed 6 kg, The worlds per capita consumption was 53.8 kg in 2000.
Source: The Bureau of International Recycling, World Consumption 2000
Dioxin is a proven carcinogen (cancer causing chemical). However a 1991 study of dioxin found that its immunological, developmental, and neurological effects at very low levels may be more threatening to human health than its carcinogenicity. There is still much controversy over the accuracy or credibility of these data, and whether low levels of dioxins really pose a threat.
Today, 90 per cent of paper pulp is made of wood. Paper manufacture is estimated to account for nearly 13 per cent of total wood use, and represents one per cent of the world's total economic output.
Source: International Institute for Environment and Development, The Sustainable Paper Cycle, draft report for the Business Council on Sustainable Development, IIED, London, 1995; Ayres, E.; "Making Paper without Trees", WorldWatch, September/October 1993, pp.5-8; Durning, A. T. and Ayres, E.; "The Story of a Newspaper", WorldWatch, November/December 1994, pp.30-32; Wright, R., personal communication.
The term "dioxin-free paper" is misleading. Paper does not contain dioxins, but they are produced as a by-product of the papermaking process and usually become part of the effluent wastewater of paper mills.
Many North American paper companies are modifying their processes to reduce the formation of dioxins. One way is to switch from pure chlorine gas to chlorine dioxide, which generates less dioxin by-product.
When paper rots or is composted it emits methane gas which is 25 times more toxic than CO2.
Source: International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), founded in 1971, was commissioned by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to do the study. A Changing Future for Paper: A summary of the study Towards a Sustainable Paper Cycle.
Austria and Sweden substitute oxygen or other nonchlorine processes, or use only non-bleached (slightly brown) paper products. This is known as "total chlorine free" (TCF), and is defend as using no chlorine or chlorine dioxide.
The pulp and paper industry is the third largest industrial buyer of elemental chlorine.
Reducing brightness requirements will make it easier for paper companies to eliminate chlorine compounds from their bleaching processes.

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FACTS ABOUT PAPER AND PAPER WASTE (Please do not print this fact sheet unless necessary!) Approx.

324 L. of water is used to produce 1 KG of paper.

The US uses 25% of the world's paper products.

It is estimated that paper consumption will rise by 50% by 2010.

The average daily web user prints 28 pages daily.

It is estimated that 95% of business information is still stored on paper.

77 percent of paper is recycled in the Netherlands.

67 percent of paper is recycled in Germany.

Recycling 54 KG of newspaper will save one tree.

52 percent of paper is recycled in Japan.

45 percent of paper is recycled in the U.S.

Paper manufacturing is the 3rd largest user of fossil fuels worldwide.

Every ton of recycled paper saves about 17 trees.

New York's largest export out of the Port of NY is waste paper.

30-40% of trash is discarded packaging.

Packaging makes up a third or more of our trash.

Every tree provides oxygen enough for 3 people to breathe.

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